Horseshoe crabs are rowdy. You can see this for yourself Friday when the Sciencenter in Ithaca opens its new touch tank exhibit to the public.

Maybe you’ve only ever seen the remains of a horseshoe crab upside down on a beach and walked past giving it a wide berth, but as Sciencenter Live Exhibits Manager Colin Meeks describes, they are fun, active bulldozers.

Horseshoe crabs are more closely related to spiders and scorpions than crustaceans. Adults have no natural predators. Their mouths are located under their shell, at the center of their legs.

“We’re able to feed them on their back and you can watch them gobble their food right in,” said Meeks, of Caroline. He added that the crabs also have a great backstroke.

Besides the four horseshoe crabs, three males and one female, the exhibit has hermit crabs, Forbes sea stars and channeled whelk. More specimens will be added.

The new exhibit is modeled after and functions like a tidal pool from the coast of Maine.

The concrete rock-like materiel was made from molds of actual rocks in Maine and a pump pushes water into the exhibit every 45 seconds simulating the action of the ocean’s waves. Visitors will be able to reach into the tank and handle the animals.

While the shell building whelk are nocturnal and spend their days buried in the sand, Meeks describes them as “easy to pull up and take a look at.”

During August there will be daily guided exploration activities for visitors from 12-2 p.m. when there will be feedings. Hours for the fall will be posted the Sciencenter’s website.

The tank holds more than 400 gallons of salt water and has clusters of mussels and barnacles attached along with algae mats simulating the ocean environment.

The Sciencenter is stressing the environmental connection of the Finger Lakes region with the ocean, placing the new tank next to the exhibit of a high-definition underwater video tracking how the water that enters Cascadilla Creek flows to the North Atlantic Ocean.

The exhibit has been months in the making and is one piece of the center’s ongoing $3.8 million capital campaign to recreate large sections of the museum.

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If you go

What: The Sciencenter.

Where: 601 First St., Ithaca.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Through the end of August.